ESTATE PLANNING 101 - Should I have a Trust or Will?

An estate plan is always necessary unless you want your estate to pass through “operation of law” which involves the long, uncertain, public and expensive process at your death with a stranger (the courts) deciding who gets everything you leave behind. This process often leads to heartache, delay and additional stress for those you leave behind, especially if they need the assets to sustain the family or if (all too commonly) family members may fight over what you leave behind.

A Simple Will comes into effect at your death, controls the distribution of your assets (who gets what and when), and names who the Executor of your estate, the person you chose to be in charge and carry out your wishes, will be. A Will is the most basic form of estate planning and still requires the estate and its assets to go through the probate process, meaning that there will be an expense and delay in transferring assets at your death. A will is also public, meaning that a record of exactly what you left and to whom is available. In our view, it’s best suited for those with limited and simple assets, few or no heirs, and those with no minor children, dependents or pets that require specific care and guardianship guidance.

A Revocable Living Trust (RLT) on the other hand includes all the elements of a will, is established and can take title to a certain assets during your lifetime when you (and your spouse) can actively manage and change it. The RLT avoids probate, passes assets privately with little or no public record and typically includes a variety of sophisticated estate tax avoidance measures. (This last issue is especially important given that many seasoned estate planners are preparing their clients for an expected estate tax regime that takes 55% of everything a married couple leaves over $2 Million as of January 1, 2011.) The RLT also names and has specific guidelines for the Trustees of your estate, appoints Guardians for your children and dependents and can retain wealth and “sprinkle” income off the principal to your heirs. It allows a countless variety of sophisticated directives including what you want done if you have some sort of incapacitation condition like an illness or mental issue, typically referred to as “living will” and “health care power of attorney” provisions.

If you don’t have an estate plan, or have had substantial changes to your family structure, wealth, children’s guardians, asset structure or gifting plans it’s time to get experienced help.

The basic estate planning tools noted above are only the tip of the iceberg. These are “death planning” tools, and do not protect assets during your life. A wide variety of Asset Protection, estate planning and family wealth management tools are available more easily and cost effectively than you know, call us to discuss your wishes and concerns!

Why Does a creditor protected CASH ALTERNATIVE make sense? Because 60% of AZ banks are vulnerable to FAILURE!

We have been warning advisor partners and clients for some time about the vulnerability of banks across the country and how we feel a little risk spreading is a good idea from both a bank solvency and Asset Protection standpoint.

The first link below is to an article that shows how vulnerable some banks in Arizona are, as just one local example of a national crisis. There have been over 80 bank closings across the country since January 1 of this year and a highly placed banking executive has informed us that the FDIC has basically run out of money twice in the last nine months. The second Link describes one of the solutions we are implementing.


THE PROBLEM:
Report: 60 Percent of Arizona Banks Vulnerable to Failure:http://tinyurl.com/2dcgnp9

And one of the SOLUTIONS: Creditor Protected Alternatives To Cash:http://tinyurl.com/lkwqtv

Please take a look at this and share with anyone you feel it would help. As always, call us for help or with questions.

Yours, Ike

Federal Estate Tax for 2010 - What you must KNOW and DO

What you need to know: The Congressional debate on estate tax legislation has been put on pause during its recess, allowing current legislation that repeals the federal estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes to take effect.

What you need to do: Individuals should determine whether these changes will affect their estate planning and stay abreast of the situation in Congress once discussion resumes.

See all the details and the full article from LEXOLOGY here: http://tinyurl.com/yejuhze

Life insurance proceeds received by limited partnership not included in gross estate of insured limited partner

In Private Letter Rulings 200947006 & 200948001, the IRS considered whether a series of transactions among a partnership, corporations and trusts which altered the ownership and beneficiary designations of two life insurance policies required inclusion of the policies in the insured's estate.

See the Whole Article here: http://tinyurl.com/y865vlp

Estate Tax to Temporarily Expire Until Next Year - Now the Really Bad News

Given the depressed value of many real estate and investment portfolios, there has never been a more tax efficient and advantageous time to implement the right kind of estate planning, start transferring assets at their current value and improve and tune up the life insurance components of your planning, here's why:

The 45 percent tax on estates of over $3.5 million for individuals, or $7 million per couple, is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2009, only to return in 2011 at a 55 percent rate for all estates of over $1 million. During 2010, estates would be taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 to 28 percent when heirs sell off more than $1.3 million in inherited assets.

Call us for help in making sure that 55% of your life's work is not lost to a system that is VOLUNTARY - that's right, I said ESTATE TAX IS VOLUNTARY. Why? Because the law allows you to structure, transfer and insure you way to ZERO estate tax liability if you are willing to put a small amount of time, money and effort into it.


See the whole story here: http://www.webcpa.com/news/Estate-Tax-Temporarily-Expire-Until-Next-Year-52743-1.html?ET=webcpa:e623:134343a:&st=email


Yours, Ike